Befringing means



April 20, 1954 H, WEBB 2,675,772

DEFRINGING MEANS Filed Feb. 7, 1952 3nventor WaZze/ 15. 1 1 6 Q i Q-(Ittomeg Patented Apr. 20, 1954 UNITED STATES OFFICE DEFRINGING MEANSApplication February '7, 1952, Serial No. 270,300

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to a rolled hem forming mechanism andparticularly to a novel defringer device for use therein.

Heretofore defringer devices have been used in conjunction with ahemmer, of the type known as a twist hemmer, to turn in the fringededges of the fabric so as to insure that they will lie within the rolledhem, thus producing a more satisfactory hem. Such prior defringers havebeen fixedly secured to the spiral hemmer and hence because of the fixedspacing would operate only on the material for which the hemmer wasdesigned.

The present invention overcomes the difiiculties of the prior art byproviding a separate defringer attachment which is adjustably mountedwith respect to the hemmer so that the hemmer can be made to operate onvarious materials by suitably adjusting the defringer spacing withrespect to the edge of the hemmer and can be adjusted independently ofthe hemmer so that it can be properly positioned without changing theadjustments of the hemmer. These are accomplished by providing adefringer member which is adjustably mounted on the base plate so as toextend transversely of the twist hemmer and which is provided with acurl at the end to lie adjacent the edge of the twist hemmer to properlydirect the edge back into the folds of the material so that it will becompletely enclosed therein.

Further, the defringer attachment can be applied to cooperate withexisting twist hemmers without changing the structure of said hemmers.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thespecification and claims when considered in connection with the drawingin which:

Figure 1 shows a top plan view of a twist hemmer with the defringingattachment in place.

Fig. 2 shows a side view looking from the bottom of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a section taken along line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary View showing the defringing device adjusted intogreater spaced relation than that of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 shows a rolled hem such as produced by the present inventionshowing the edge secured within the hem.

While the device of the present invention may be applied to a sewingmachine in many ways, in the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention it is formed as an attachment to be secured to the bed of asewing machine in line with the feeding and sewing mechanism thereof asis usual. This attachment comprises a base plate it having an elongateopening II by which the attachment is secured to the bed by means of abolt (not shown) passing therethrough. The twist hemmer comprises a pairof superposed spaced plates !2, it which are connected together at idand are preferably tapered as shown in Fig. 1. The plates are mounted onthe base plate by means of a screw l5 extending through an extensionIZCL on the plate and may be pivotally adjusted thereabout to line upwith the sewing mechanism. The plates are twisted together lengthwisetoward the needle to provide between them a spiral guideway IS extendingtoward the needle within which the edge of the fabric may be placed. Theforward end of the guideway is flared as at Hid to aid in the insertionof the fabric. Movement of the fabric toward the needle will cause thematerial adjacent the edge to be folded over upon itself as itapproaches the needle so that the edge is disposed within the rolledportion. One such hem is shown at IT in Fig. 5.

With same fabrics the raw edge of the fabric produces a fringed effectwhich has a tendency to be uncontrolled by the hemmer and to work out ofthe hem and to project therefrom and produce an unsatisfactoryappearance. According to the present invention this is avoided byproviding a separate defringing device l8 which cooperates with thehemmer to insure that the edge is turned into the hem. As hereinillustrated the defringing device comprises an arm is having at one endan edge engaging curled portion 20 and having at its other end a slot 2|by which it may be adjustably mounted on the base plate to extendtransversely of the hemmer intermediate the ends thereof by means of aclamping screw 22 passing through the slot and having an enlarged head23 engaging the arm. While the edge engaging curl may be of any desiredshape, it is at present preferred to provide it with a longitudinallyextending curvature as shown in Fig. 1 so that it will follow the curveon the spiral on the hemmer and closely overlie the edge of the guidewayas shown in Fig. 3 so as to accurately control the folding in of thefringed edge.

A feature of the invention resides in the fact that the defringingdevice being a separate member may be attached to any existing hemmerwithout in any way modifying the hemmer. Furthermore, since it isseparate from the hemmer and has an elongate slot 2! in its mountingmeans it may be adjusted with respect to the hemmer without disturbingthe adjustment of the hemmer in order that the device may accommodatedifferent types of fabrics. This is clear from a Showing of Figs. 1 and4 wherein Fig. 1 the adjustment is arranged so that the curl is closelyadjacent the open edge of the guideway and will insure movement offringed edges of fine fabrics, such as necktie fabrics, into the fold.In Fig. 4 the guide is positioned further away from the edge of theguideway and may be used to curl back the edge of heavier, stifierfabrics to aid in properly forming a rolled edge thereon. Also thedevice may be pivotally adjusted about the screw 22 to provide therequired clearance all along the edge of the guideway without disturbingthe adjustment of the hemmer.

Variations and modifications may be made within the scope of the claimsand portions of the improvements may be used without others.

I claim:

1. A hemming attachment for sewing machines adapted to form a rollededge on fabrics comprising a base plate adapted to be secured to thesewing machine in advance of the stitch forming mechanism, a pair ofspaced longitudinally twisted guide members mounted on the base plateand forming a continuously twisting channel through which the edge of afabric being hemmed may pass, and a defringer attachment comprising anarm having means at one end for adjustably mounting the arm on the baseplate to extend transversely of the guide members intermediate the endsthereof and having a curl at the other end spaced inwardly from the freeend of said twisted guide members a substantial distance and locatedadjacent the side of the guide members opposite said mounting means andspaced from the curved edges of the guide members in position overlyingthe same to turn the turning edge of the fabric into the folds of thefabric forming the rolled edge.

2. A hemming attachment for sewing machines adapted to form a rollededge on fabrics comprising a base plate adapted to be secured to on thebase plate to be aligned with the stitch forming mechanism, a pair ofspaced longitudinally twisted guide members adjustably mounted on thebase plate to be aligned with the stitch forming mechanism, said membersforming a continuously twisting channel through which the edge of afabric being hemmed may pass, and a defringer attachment comprising anarm having one end adjustably mounted on the base plate so as to extendtransversely below the guide members intermediate the ends thereof andhaving a curl at the other end spaced inwardly from the free end of saidtwisted guide members and extending upwardly and overlying the edge ofthe twisted channel formed by the guide members to engage the turningedge of the fabric and direct it inwardly into the rolled edge, said armbeing adjustable independently of said guide members to space the curlededge thereof in predetermined spaced relation to the side of saidmembers in accordance with the fabric being used.

3. A hemming attachment for sewing machines adapted to forth a rollededge on fabrics comprising a base plate adapted to be secured to thesewing machine in advance of the stitch forming mechanism, a pair ofspaced longitudinally twisted guide members mounted on the base plateand forming a continuously twisting chan- V nel through which the edgeof a fabric being hemmed may pass, and a defringer attachment comprisingan arm having an elongate slot at one end for adjustably mounting thearm on the base plate to extend transversely and under the guide membersintermediate the ends thereof at a point spaced inwardly of the free endof said twisted guide members and having a curl extending upwardly ofthe arm at the other end, said curl overlying the edges of the twistedguide members and having a longitudinal curvature corresponding to thecurvature of the edges of the twisted guide members and being in spacedrelation to said edges to overlie the same to engage the edge of theturning fabric and turn the edge of the fabric into the folds of thefabric forming the rolled edge.

References Cited in the file of this patent,

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,857,058 Maier May 3, 19322,034,672 Ackerman Mar. 17, 1936 2,138,633 Greenfield et al. Nov. 29,1938 2,621, 19 Enos Dec, 16, 1952

